Montgomery County, Maryland, issued $280 million in bonds to refinance old debt and fund capital public projects.
The bonds mature between 2024 and 2043, yielding between 2.95% and 4.14%. They received a rating of Aaa from Moody’s Investors Service, AAA from S&P Global Ratings, and AAA from Fitch Ratings.
“The Aaa issuer rating reflects the county’s robust and diverse local economy that benefits from institutional presence of the federal government, its healthy reserves that are expected to remain in line through fiscal 2023, and its relatively low leverage,” according to Moody’s.
Proceeds from the sale of the bonds will finance projects in the county’s capital improvement plan, within which public school funding is a priority. They will also refund outstanding commercial paper bond anticipation notes originally issued in 2009 and 2010. After the issuance, the county will have $3.7 billion in total direct debt, according to the official statement accompanying the sale of the bonds.
Montgomery County is the largest county in Maryland and includes the affluent northwest suburbs of Washington DC. The bonds are general obligations of the county, backed by its full faith and credit. The county generated $3.9 billion in revenue last fiscal year and projects a similar collection for the year ahead.
Jefferies LLC won a bidding process for the bonds last week.